Sourav Ganguly 'rests' himself

Sourav Ganguly today 'rested' himself from the IPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore as Steven Smith was asked to lead Pune Warriors in the contest.

Pune: Sourav Ganguly today 'rested' himself from the IPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore as Steven Smith was asked to lead Pune Warriors in the contest.

The speculation had gained momentum that Ganguly may not play in the remaining games in the league since the side is out of play-offs reckoning.

Yesterday, the team management had announced that Ganguly will serve only as the team's mentor from the next season.

Ganguly's future role in the team was spelt out by franchise owner Subrata Roy who said that the veteran batsman wants to remain in the team as mentor only.

"Sourav will be the mentor next season. We rather pushed him to play in IPL 5 as he is such a fantastic captain," Roy had said.

Ganguly has been under the scanner for his failure as a batsman in the current edition of IPL while the team's below-par show has also put a question mark on his waning leadership skills. Pune have lost nine of their 13 matches in the league so far.